The present disclosure relates generally to network traffic analysis, and more particularly to botnet analysis and visualization.
The Internet provides users with access to a voluminous amount of information. However, connecting to the Internet also comes with certain risks. One of these is the risk of a user's computer being infected with malicious software.
Internet bots are often configured as malicious software. Internet bots, also referred to as bots, are software applications designed to run tasks automatically and autonomously based on commands from a separate entity. A collection of bots each operating on one of a number of networked computers is referred to as a botnet. Botnets may be commanded and controlled by a bot master who can control the bots of the botnet remotely. Bots of a botnet can be commanded to conduct distributed denial of service attacks or similar operations used to affect another entity's availability or functionality. What is needed is a method of detecting botnets to prevent or lessen the effect of malicious operations.